Tuesday 14 May 2013

Regency Snippets - Waltz

Questions have been raised about when the waltz was first danced in England so you might find this interesting.

"Some such dance, it appears, had been known in England nearly a score of years before, for in The Times of February 19, 1796, we read: "The balls at Southampton are exceedingly lively and well-attended. The young ladies are particularly favourable to a German dance, called the Volse: for squeezing, hugging etc., it is excellent, and more than one Lady has actually fainted in the middle of it. The "Volse" however, had not penetrated the metropolis, or at least to the fashionable circles thereof;and when in 1813 it was danced at Almacks for the first time - it was then in a slow movement trow temps - by Madame de Lieven and "Cupid" Palmerston, and Princess Esterhazy and Baron de Neumann. It divided society into two camps; those who welcomed it with open arms and those who resented the introduction to them as a most indecorous proceeding. Lampoon after lampoon was provoked by the new dance, and more than one of these has come down to posterity."

The Beaux of the Regency by Lewis Saul Benjamin (1908)

However, beware Princess Esterhazy was not in England in 1813. I hope the rest of this is accurate.